Electric string instruments such as electric guitars, electric bass guitars, and the like, are restricted in their portability by the requirement that an amplifier and speaker system is required for generating output sound from the instrument when the instrument is played. Known amplifiers and speaker systems are not easily portable because of their typically large size and their requirement to be connected to an electric power source. Users of electric string instruments have therefore not enjoyed the portability of their acoustic counterparts.
Electric string instruments with built-in speaker systems and power supplies exist, however, do not help the user who wishes to portably use one's own preferred electric string instrument of choice. Retrofitting a preferred electric string instrument of choice with built-in speakers is expensive, burdensome, and drastically alters the instrument. Such drastic alterations are especially not preferred for high-quality collectible instruments. Separate portable speaker units provide some degree of portability to a user, but the user is still tethered to the speaker unit while playing, and is unable to be mobile with the separate speaker unit while playing the instrument.
For users wishing to add supplementary audio or processing to the sound of one's preferred electric string instrument, by means of a portable computing device, the portability challenge is compounded by the requirement of the guitar, the speaker, and the portable computing device to remain connected while playing the instrument.